Japanophile Isle

I’m in the middle of my work on Japanese History within that very period, it’s amazing what I’m learning even though I consider my general education to be generously wide. In short, that time-span is the modernization and westernization of Japan. Japan as we know it is only 130-some years old. As close from now as 1867, the Tokugawa Shogunate was ruling Japan. That’s right, we’re talking Samurais and Shoguns here, it was a feudal military dictatorship. Guys like these:

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• Kannagi
• Akane-iro no Somaru
• Toaru Majutsu no Index
• Toradora
• Shikabanehime Aka
• Macademi Wasshoi

What do their first episodes all have in common? *hint* fanservice *hint*

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Earlier this week, Taro Aso has been making waves within the otaku circles. The reason for that is simple, and as you may already know, Mr. Aso is a self-proclaimed Manga fanatic.

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Amazing videos cornering the staples of Japanese manners: Shazai, Sushi and Chopsticks.

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By all accounts, this place has cooled down since September. As you might have guessed, it was the back-to-school period for me. I’ve taken a prolonged break from education this past year but I’m back at full speed in my academical pursuits.

With these new elements populating my “Schedule” (An alien concept to me) I’ve had mixed success juggling it all together. The bus pass, the books, the clothes, the studying and the reading, they kept me away from you guys and my keyboard. That’s not to say there weren’t positive elements to this, I’ve scored perfect marks on my Hiragana test and I’m about 2-4 years in front of my studies when it comes to Philosophy. Needless to say, I’m pretty comfortable the way things are. This is good news as I can get some more anime back in my daily life!

I’ve stopped watching most of the anime series I beginned the season with, most of them lingering on my list at episode 5-8. Interestingly, I’ve kept loyal to Code Geass so far, even as I wonder what it has done for me lately. Must be a sense of responsability I’m giving myself. Other than that, I watched Candy Boy and Nodame Cantabile along with this season’s anime, enjoying every single minute of them. What’s left on my checklist is Eve no Jikan, taking up a handful of megabytes in my HDD, receiving the minimum amount of attention required by politeness.

What I can hint at for the future is this: There have been some talks and j-isle could get bigger and better soon. Hint: making use of that bandwidth.

In the meantime, I’m really looking forward to the upcoming anime season. It’ll let me start binge-watching my anime again

I’ve been thinking about who to include in this Blogroll and I couldn’t find anyone for a while but now I’m confident in my choice.

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Here we have the BBC doing a report on sexual activity in japan, from compensated dating to bondage. Not a word on the porn and 2d industry (Hentai), the Bukkake also shines by its absence.

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I hope you’ll consider joining j-isle in this year’s Blog Action Day - The topic This year is Poverty.

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Waiting for Code Geass R2 18 to show up? When it doesn’t show up, do you go watch some anime you missed before? Ever stop to think it could be a giant waste of time? It can be hard for some of us to entertain the possibility, the answer to that question sometimes yields profound and important implications. I think it’s important to solve this question because I feel we should all feel confident about what we do with our lives and we should always review it exhaustively.

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I’ve found that the anime Philosophers of the blogosphere have been preoccupied with fanservice of late. Being the opportunist that I am, I decided it would be a wonderful time to talk to you about my conception of fanservice.

David of The Anime Blog argued with some nuance that fanservice has become Cliché, that the term has become essentially meaningless because it described too much of a vast repertoire of anime phenomena. He believed that we should eliminate the term fanservice from our vocabulary.

I will argue to the contrary here. His list of things he believed to be fanservice were not all fanservice in essence, many were merely fanservice by association. It was a misconception of the essence of fanservice that made his call to arms silly.

Rachel of The Anime Blog brought us closer to the truth. She held that nothing is fanservice in itself, which is an important step towards understanding fanservice. She toyed with the circumstances upon which phenomena became fanservice but I don’t believe she has done it adequately.

Most irrelevant was the greater part of the article, going over what fanservice “can” be. Which is obvious when the definition is known. Regardless, this was the central part of her argumentation :

“It [fanservice] is simply gratuitous use of popular motifs and characters as an end in themselves and not a means to an end.“

First of all, the part in bold contradicts her use of the term “gratuitous” which claims that gratuitous things have no justification or reason for existing. It is odd to use that word only to follow with saying that they are justified as an end. Taking that glaring contradiction aside, fanservice as “an end in itself” doesn’t make much sense either. What I believe she meant to say was that fanservice always reveals itself immediately to the viewer and for its immediate stimuli only. What would be fanservice without people to view it? It is not an end, it really is a means to an end.

The notion of immediate stimuli is central to my conception of fanservice. Phenomena becomes fanservice if the essence of the context is at odds with the immediate stimuli it produces. Furthermore, fanservice is intentional, it is when the author goes out of his way to please the fan even when the situation doesn’t lend to such a proposition. For example: a scantily clad warrior-woman. She would be better off with a lot of armor but the author decides to send her off in a bra and panties anyway. The immediate stimuli is arousal and the context is protection gear.

What happens when the stimuli is expected in the context? It becomes normal stuff. Like hentai, it makes no pretense about the content. Fanservice anime is like “pretend hentai”, it goes on like a normal anime except it’s expected that there will be sensual stimuli along the way, it’s the gray zone between anime and hentai.

In conclusion, fanservice is context-specific and intent-specific. However, it can be detrimental because it is essentially anti-atmospheric. It can make the anime less believable, it can alienate your target audience because it goes against the flow the things. Just how much and when is fanservice welcome is ample matter for another debate so stick around, you could even comment on it below if you want to spearhead the effort.